Posts tagged heart failure

Today our customers lost a dear old dog. She was in congestive heart failure and quite old. She was rushed in to the vet’s place this morning for treatment.
The Dr. suggested that they go ahead and put her down, but Mrs. ‘Smith’ wanted blood work and anything else they could do. The vet was understandably upset, after all, they don’t want any animal needlessly suffering. Unfortunately it seemed to me that neither party was listening to the other.
The vet had the dog on oxygen so she could breathe more easily, and was upset over the dog’s suffering. Mrs. Smith however was sure that her little dog would rally and could go home with her today.
The doctor seemed surprised when I said that Mrs. Smith just wanted a miracle for her dog. She wasn’t being heartless over her dog’s sufferings. She just wasn’t ready to let go,but when are any of us? I felt that neither client nor doctor was hearing the other. The client didn’t want to hear that there was no hope. The vet heard only “I don’t want her put down.”
I feel that though we listen to each other, we don’t often enough , hear each other. Something to work on, yes?